Our Fun Visit...

Our visit with Mom and Dad has been absolutely wonderful. Ben and I have been having so much fun. Sadly, our visit is almost done. But here is a recap of the past week:
Friday- Ben picked Daniel up from the metro station on his way home from work Friday morning. Mom and Dad showed up about noon or so. So we all made a trip to Costco (a must of course!) and picked up a pizza from there for lunch....they have really good pizza. That evening we made these huge sirloin steaks on the grill, which made everyone very happy.
Saturday- Ben had to work, but I took Daniel, Mom and Dad out for a little drive around Stephens City to show them the park and other little places. Then we headed over to Ben and my friend Julie's house for a cookout/pool party. That evening we came back to the house and watched the fireworks from the upstairs window. It was great because we could see the big fireworks display from the house and didn't have to worry about bugs or traffic. :)
Sunday- We went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel, took Daniel shopping for clothes and groceries, and took him back to DC. We had dinner at Bertucci's (a great little Italian place) and we were quite the noisy group. We weren't really all that bad, but we laughed a lot. :)
Monday-Ben worked again. Dad's poison ivy (from the last time they visited, two weeks prior) was still really bad so we decided to take a trip to the walk in clinic. 3 hours later, Dad was diagnosed as still having poison ivy, and was put on some meds. So then Mom, Dad and I went up to Costco where I found the most perfect kitchen table. We were in the Camry so I couldn't buy it just yet, so instead we headed to a gardening store where they had everything on sale. I needed to get some insecticide for our dogwoods and I bought Sparkler Roses for around our mailbox. I decided I definitely wanted to get the table from Costco to surprise Ben the next day, so we went back up to Costco, bought the table and tried to fit it into the highlander and camry...it didn't fit completely so we had to call in reinforcements (our friend Julie).
Tuesday- We planned to go canoeing on Tuesday. However, Ben came home from work really sick. He barely even noticed/mentioned the new table and went straight upstairs. He ended up having some pretty classic food poisoning symptoms (vomiting, etc). But then he started having some abnormal chest pains. After awhile, we were on our way to the ER. After about 6 hours, 2 IV fluid bags, and a shot of Dilaudid, the diagnoses was a "jolted" esophagus and a strained muscle from vomiting. And the doctor wasn't sure if it was food poisoning or a gastrointestinal virus. My money was on the food poisoning. He was sent home with two scripts. The one was Zofran, a med to calm the stomach and prevent vomiting. However, after taking this particular med his temperature shot up to 102.6 and he was having horrible headaches. Turns out that these are side-effects of Zofran. He hasn't taken anymore Zofran.
Wednesday-Ben was still not feeling super well (who could blame him!) so we took it easy. We took a drive to Middleburg. Middleburg is this cute little town in the middle of horse country. We went to Wylie Wagg to order Aida a new address tag and then to lunch at the Red Horse Tavern. On the drive back we stopped in the Virginia State Arboretum. Ben slept in the car while Mom, Dad and I walked around. It was beautiful. The building on the property was the old slave quarters which has been converted into dormitories for visiting students and scientists. Once we got back home, Ben took another nap and we filled Aida's pool and let her go "swimming." She ended up drinking so much water that she peed on the floor and even did a happy dance to go outside again (she stood at the door shifting her weight from one back leg to the other).
Thursday- Since Ben was feeling much better, we went canoeing (we took a raft instead of a canoe so we could all go together). We had a great time. We decided to go on a 7 mile trip. As soon as we got in the water we saw a deer and a crane. We saw several cranes throughout the trip, and some turtles, fish and even a beaver! The trip was a blast. Mom and Ben got a little sunburnt, but we would all like to go again sometime! I think Mom would even be up for a few more rapids!

So that is the update so far. We aren't sure what our plans are for tomorrow. But we are looking forward to another fun day. Here are some pics from the week:

How cute is my Cousin?!

Makes you want to drink lots of tea. :)

The Greenest Thumb

Ben and I have finished another item on our "to-do" list. We finally have planted our vegetable garden. And believe me, it was no easy task! To start off, the area we used for the garden was absolutely infested with weeds. I'm talking about 1 to 2 foot tall dandelions...no joke. Not to mention the irritating weeds that are like vines that subsequently strangled out all the real plants that were initially growing in that area. But after the long grueling hours of weeding we were able to begin work on our garden.

We planted: Tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green beans, romaine lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers. I'm hoping we have "green thumbs" and that all our hard work will pay off in the end. I will keep the blog updated as to the progress of our garden...wish us luck! :)

Memorial Day 2009

Our friend's Matt and Cat came to visit us for Memorial Day weekend. We had a really good time and were already making plans for their next visit before they even left! The first day we took a walk around the complex, went to the Stephens City/Newtown Festival, and had a cookout. The next day we headed out to the Shenandoah River State Park. It was beautiful. We went on about 3 miles of trails and got about 3 dozen bug bites! That night we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Glory Days Grill, to celebrate Matt and Cat's birthdays. Of course in between all our fun, we got in a few games on the Wii.

Overall it was a wonderful visit and we definitely look forward to another visit! :)

Alright you Bird Lovers....

Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? It was sitting on our fence yesterday morning and both Ben and I are puzzled as to what kind of bird it is....

**UPDATE**
It took all of 10 minutes, but Aunt Martha figured out the bird mystery. It is a Green Heron. Pretty cool I think. It seems that it was not quite full grown (a little smaller than a crow). Hopefully I will see it again this summer! :) Thanks Aunt Martha!

Before and after...in progress

Ben and I have been busy getting the house unpacked and trying to make the house feel like our home. So I thought it would be nice to take some "after" pictures to compare to the pictures I took a couple of months back. We are still in the process of fixing up a few things here and there, so as we complete our never-ending project list I will post more pictures...or you could just come see for yourselves :).

I'm so Proud....

Ben and I were very excited to be able to join Mom, Dad and Nathan to surprise Daniel at Ohio State for the Sphinx Senior Honorary induction last Friday. Mom and Dad received a notification back in early April stating that Daniel was to be inducted into the 103rd class of the Sphinx Senior Honorary. The induction was to be a surprise for Daniel as he was going to be "ambushed" by the current members and taken to the ceremony where his family would be there to see him.

It turns out that they got a key to his room and yanked him out of bed at 7:00am for the induction. He is then "linked" with a current member who turned out to be one of the very first friends he made at Ohio State. I can't remember her name, but she was very nice.

Daniel was completely shocked to see the family already there. And I must say, I have never seen Daniel smile as much as he did that day. He was absolutely beaming all day, as he should have been. We were all so proud of him. It was a really big deal that he was inducted into this honorary society. Only up to 24 students out of the entire Ohio State Senior Class are chosen, based on scholarship, leadership and their contribution to the school.

Daniel deserved it. I think the Sphinx are lucky to have him. I am so proud of my brother.